Opposite Truths

I once knew a man who knew a man who used to turn scripture on its head. One truth, for him, always had an opposite truth.

This morning I was reading the opening chapter of Romans. Reading from Romans 1:18-23 is not really encouraging stuff. It may be a sober description of the state of mankind in rebellion against God, and it may be an accurate description of “me” before Christ called me…but it is depressing reading. I thought I would have a go at turning it on its head to find some opposite truth.

“The mercy of God is being released from heaven upon all the godly and righteous people, who demonstrate the truth through virtuous living. What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so they refused to hide behind excuses.

Because they knew God, they glorified him as God and gave thanks to him, and they began to think the way God thinks and their hearts were flooded with light. They abandoned any claim to be wise, becoming fools in the eyes of the world. They refused to surrender the glory of the immortal God and they scorned images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”

Not bad. I don’t think there is anything there that Paul would complain about!

I was wondering about the invisible qualities of God and whether they can be clearly seen in today’s world. It seems to me that there has been a lot of muddying of the water with all the different “isms” around, and by the denominational nit-picking that goes on in the Christian faith. And of course, there is science adding its own “truth” to the mix.

I guess there were “isms” around when Paul wrote his letter, and the nit-picking in the Christian faith was happening even then.

It is encouraging to know that “What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them”.

What ever the “isms” and nit-picking, what may be known about God is made plain because God makes it plain.

A Fishy Tale

We were talking about pets in work today. I didn’t tell any horror stories about our pet gerbil, Larsson’s Hairband, though one of my colleagues has a daughter who has asked for a couple of gerbils for her birthday!

I told them my fishy tale instead!

I cut my teaching teeth in the east end of London. The last stop on the Victoria line on the underground is Walthamstow. I lived in the nearby district of Chingford, right on the edge of the Epping Forest. Being new to teaching, and new to London, I lodged with a family. It was a big three story house.

The landlady was a social worker. She had separated from her husband and was bringing up a daughter by herself.

This particular daughter had asked for a tropical fish tank for her birthday. She filled it with the usual selection of sunken wrecks, anchors and such like. The fish were guppies. They swam about and looked peaceful.

One particular guppy seemed to get bigger than the others and started to bully the smaller fish. It would quite viciously bite big chunks off fins and tails – or rather, little chunks seeing as they were so small. Little essential chunks. There were even times when the remains of guppies floated on the top of the water.

Now remember the landlady was a social worker! She decided to do something about the bully. She fished him out of the tank with a net and dropped him into a bowl of cold water! It wasn’t freezing cold. It just wasn’t tropical temperatures.

She left him in the bowl, by himself for a week.

Then she returned him to the tank with the rest of the guppies. Perhaps it was that chance the other fish had to grow a little quicker without his bullying behaviour that caused the change, and not the week in solitary confinement. The returned guppy behaved perfectly and gave up him bullish manners!

Telling the story, there is always a ripple of laughter. There is always the sceptic response too. I mean, don’t we all know that fish have a two minute memory? They swim around the tank, see the same scenery, but they just don’t remember they have seen the scenery before. Two minutes and everything is new.

I know what I saw because I was a witness, and yet in telling the tale, I am haunted by the fish’s apparent two minute memory. The bullying guppy could not possibly have remembered the solitary confinement and the cold water!

I have been rescued! Apparently fish are not as dumb as we make them out to be! Granted, some of them may not be the card carrying MENSA’s of the marine world, but they do remember for a lot longer than two minutes!

According to a newspaper article, anything a rat can do in being taught to learn to negotiate a maze and get rewarded with treats for its endeavours, the same is true of a fish. They have been given a bad press.

It makes me wonder about information that we heard somewhere, once upon a time and we – in fishy terms – swallowed, hook line and sinker! What other information do we presume to know as undisputed truth, but it is just isn’t true at all?

Someone once told me, and I believed them, that God was watching me. He had a little black book in which he recorded all of my misdemeanours. Maybe it wasn’t such a little book as I was not angel. I fretted about that book and tried hard to be good. I put myself under intense pressure and eventually cracked up. I could never be that good, so why keep trying?

What a relief it was to discover the truth. There is no black book! Yes, I am being watched, but watched in love. I don’t need to be good enough because Jesus has been good enough on my behalf.